Haptics is a tactile and force feedback technology that takes advantage of a user's sense of touch by applying haptic feedback effects (i.e., “haptic effects”), such as forces, vibrations, and motions, to the user. Devices, such as mobile devices, touchscreen devices, and personal computers, can be configured to generate haptic effects. In general, calls to embedded hardware capable of generating haptic effects (such as actuators) can be programmed within an operating system (“OS”) of the device. These calls specify which haptic effect to play. For example, when a user interacts with the device using, for example, a button, touchscreen, lever, joystick, wheel, or some other control, the OS of the device can send a play command through control circuitry to the embedded hardware. The embedded hardware then produces the appropriate haptic effect.
Devices can be configured to coordinate the output of haptic effects with browsing content on a particular device or the output of other content, such as music, movies, games, or other media, so that the haptic effects are incorporated into the other content. For example, haptic effects may be used to assist with scrolling through a list of related items: a device may provide a user with a list of musical albums or books, the user may utilize gestures such as a finger swipe on a screen to scroll through such a list, and a response, such as a click or pop, may be programmed to coincide with each item as it scrolls across the screen. However, as devices and media continue to advance, a simple click may be insufficient to convey enough information about a particular item within the list.